Pirates of the Spanish Main: Here thar be Monsters

Alfie's Journal - 002

Getting Our First Ship

28

APR/17

No sooner did we get aboard Wolverston's ship, The Mermaid's Trumpet (I don't really know what that means), everyone decided to take one of the Spanish ships. Despite never working together on a ship we all did pretty good. Mack took the Pilot's Wheel and that concerned me a little. But I guess he did ok, 'cause he only scraped the dock a little bit and it didn't hurt anything.

Anyway, we got up to the ship really fast, but on our way, the Spanish dogs fired two of their cannon at us! Luckily, they missed like the shit eating dung beetles that they are. I'm not sure that makes sense, but I just love to call Spaniards "Shit eating dung beetles".

Ok, so there we were coming up along side the Spanish ship and I thought I would try the same trick again where I call out, "Sálvame señor!" which means "Save me sir!" after climbing up the rigging and swinging across on a rope. I guess in all the excitement, my foot slipped and I ended up hanging upside down in the rigging for a moment. Well, I was able to right myself and grab a rope and swing across.

I jump off the rope right next to this big guy with a boarding axe. I cry out "Sálvame señor!", but it looked like he didn't believe me. He raised up his axe to hit me when suddenly he disappeared into a fine red mist. Then I realized that the Funny Little Man (Hammy) had been screaming something. I look back to the Mermaid's Trumpet and see him screaming and dancing in joy right next to a cannon holding a burning taper. I've never liked anyone more than Hammy at that moment.

Then the other Spaniard next to me dropped his gun and put up his hands as another one jumped overboard. I looked around and while I was trying to climb the rigging and swing across, my friends had killed almost everyone on the ship.

We realized that we had two seaworthy vessels and might have a chance of getting away with both of them. We sent Dom back across to Wolverston and had them sail in front of us. Then we all put on Spanish breastplates and helmets and pretended like we were chasing them. We even fired the cannons at them to make it convincing. Luckily those stupid Spaniards believed that we were just chasing down a ship and let us go without any "help".

Once everything calmed down we all started exploring the ship. I went looking for hidey holes and crawl spaces. I found two really good ones that I don't think anyone will find until we unload all the cargo. While I was exploring one of them, I noticed Hammy had dragged out a big locked box. He kept calling for everyone to come down, but they were all above deck and couldn't hear him. So Hammy goes running up the stairs to get everyone. I jumped down and grabbed a nail laying nearby and popped the lock open. I have never seen so many pieces of eight and gems and jewels in my life! There were also some papers, so I started looking at them just as most of the crew comes down, including Mack who was supposed to be piloting the ship. Hammy also had a manifest that listed all of the cargo, even the loot in the big box.

We know that we don't want Wolverston getting his hands on this, so I have Derry help me get the lockbox up to one of my hidey holes and then I cover it with other crates so you can't see it without moving a bunch of stuff. After that, I climb down and head above deck.

It seems that I was just in time, because there's Wolverston on deck with that giant of a man, Dom. As soon as they are on deck, Wolverston starts talking about finding the manifest and the lockbox. I offer to go down into the hold to help them look for it. I managed to convince Dom that I thought I saw someone with a book tucked into their belt jump overboard just as we were taking the ship. Since he is unable to find it, I think he believes me. Both Wolverston and Dom are very frustrated at this point and decide that they have to do an inventory.

I offer to help with the inventory. I made Dom do all the writing as I reported what I found. Ha ha! He isn't very good at writing so it took a long time. While we were doing that, I guess the rest of the guys had a discussion about how we should run the boat and so they came down to discuss that with Wolverston. I thought there might be another fight for a bit, but Wolverston and Dom just said that we should all go above deck to discuss it. I made sure to get some rum for Wolverston.

A discussion was had and we all voted for a captain. Mack tried to get people to vote for him, so I told everyone that I would sooner be captain than have him be captain. Don't get me wrong, I like Mack and he's funny, but he could never be a captain. At that point, Hammy starts crying out "The Boy Captain!". It was really a joke, but I thought for a moment that he might have convinced people. I think it is good that I didn't end up captain though. Oh, Hammy actually got elected as captain. He's really good at talking to people and raising their spirits, so I think he will make a good captain. Not to mention he sure knows how to fire a cannon. Hmmmmm, maybe he should be Captain Cannon. As much as I like Hammy, I just don't think it will intimidate anyone.

Well, we get Hammy elected as Captain. but Wolverston says that Hammy should be the captain of the Mermaid's Trumpet. I can tell you that none of us liked that idea and I got worried there might be another fight. Luckily some of the guys had cool heads like Mathias and they convinced Wolverston, with the help of Dom, that we should be the ones out fighting in this big ship while he relaxed on his boat.

Old Smokey said that now we have to write out the Articles of Agreement and all sign it. I guess it is the rules we all live by as a member of the ship. I hope they aren't too harsh. I was a slave once, and I don't want to be one again. I'll just have to wait and see.